In the parent patent application to this continuation-in-part, a method and apparatus were described in general terms which involves placing a probe in proximity to or within the intervertebral disc to thermally denervate the nerves that enervate the disc, such nerves being inside the disc and/or on the approximate surface of the disc. In the embodiments shown in the parent patent application, various types of thermal probes or heating probes were introduced into the disc, and the temperature of the disc or a portion of the disc was elevated so as to destroy the nerves in and/or on the disc which are giving rise to the discogenic pain. In one specific embodiment, a radiofrequency probe was shown to be inserted into the disc, and the probe, upon proper target location inside the disc, was connected to an external radiofrequency power source, thus producing controlled heating within the disc. This has been shown clinically by the present authors to be an effective and safe method for relieving various kinds of discogenic pain in the lower back, thoracic, and cervical regions of the spine.
The parent patent application describes several specific embodiments of disc heating devices and states that further embodiments may be devised by those skilled in the art which also fall within the scope of that parent application that have the objective of heating the disc until it is denervated. In this continuation-in-part, we wish to extend the concepts of thermal denervation of the disc to that of lowering the temperature or, in essence, freezing the disc cryogenically for the same pain relief objective. Furthermore, we wish to elaborate on the use of other power sources that can be used to cause heating of the disc which were generally stated and observed in the parent patent application. In that parent patent application, reference was made to use of penetrating radiation to heat the disc. We would like to describe a specific embodiment of this involving electromagnetic radiation and particularly the use of optical, or near optical, radiation such as applicable with lasers.